Following CNN's Lead, BBC Uses Questionable Sources for Story

October 26th, 2006 12:24 PM

Terrorists in Iraq know they can rely on CNN to carry their propaganda as if it were straight news, now the Taliban is having success in placing "news" with the publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation.

The homepage blurb makes it sound, well, official [emphasis added]:

'Civilians killed' in Nato raids Scores of civilians have been killed in Nato raids against the Taleban in southern Afghanistan, officials say.

But the true nature of the reporting only becomes clear after you click on the headline to read the story itself [emphasis added]:

Scores of civilians have been killed during Nato operations against Taleban fighters in southern Afghanistan, local officials and civilians say.

Most Britons are going to assume that the BBC means "British officials" when they read "officials" in the headline. Instead, the BBC is relying on the veracity of local chieftains and civilians in Taliban-infested areas for their information.

These are the same sort of people who brought Western news agencies this staged photo, purportedly of a "missile part," but actually an inert artillery shell, that local Afghan officials and civilians claimed was responsible for numerous civilian deaths in an airstrike on the Taliban.

One would think that with the recent fake news/fauxtography scandals that news agencies would be more careful about checking the veracity of their sources.